Auditor General clears health staff of wrongdoing

The Auditor General has cleared Health Department staff over their acceptance of gifts and free travel.

Colin Murphy was asked to examine the situation after it was revealed senior health staff accepted more than $700,000 worth of travel, accommodation and gifts over an eight month period.

Mr Murphy says there is no evidence that either staff or private companies inappropriately benefited from the gifts.

However, he found serious weaknesses in the way the department managed its gifts and sponsored travel policy.

The Health Minister Kim Hames says his department will take note of the findings and implement changes where necessary.

"That sample of 25 that the Opposition said were clearly rorting the system and they weren't clearly rorting the system," he said.

"The Auditor General has given us some minor areas to tweak and tighten up and we are more than happy to do those."

Previously, the Director General of Health Kim Snowball defended his staff saying overseas trips to medical conferences were an important research tool.

He said the trips did not amount to gifts as they were needed for training and were offered as part of the tender process when procuring new equipment and technologies.

Documents tabled in parliament revealed there were more than 250 instances in which senior public servants and ministerial staff accepted overseas flights, accommodation, champagne and electronic items from a variety of companies.

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